Robert Coard; as ABCD leader with ‘golden touch,’ fought poverty for half century

Mr. Coard, who suffered from heart disease, had officially retired Sunday, after 45 years with ABCD.

He was too ill to attend a retirement tribute held in his honor Friday night at the Copley Marriott during ABCD’s annual community awards dinner.

About 1,500 people, including the governor, attended and saw a 10-minute film featuring scenes of Mr. Coard’s decades spent fighting for social justice and education as paths out of poverty.

The soundtrack to the short film included “Lean On Me.’’ Friends said the Bill Withers song captured Mr. Coard’s passionate devotion to helping people in hard times find their way.

“ABCD is a testament to Bob,’’ said John J. Drew, who worked with Mr. Coard for 40 years and is now ABCD’s leader. “Nothing else in the country is set up like this with so much community participation, and that was what Bob was all about. He loved politics, and he was good at it.’’

Under Mr. Coard’s leadership, ABCD helped countless clients find housing, jobs, food, and heat, and it grew to become an agency with a $132 million operating budget and a staff of about 1,000, serving 100,000 people yearly.

“Boston without Bob Coard is like the Public Garden without the swan boats,’’ former Boston mayor Raymond L. Flynn said.

Flynn recalled Mr. Coard’s “golden touch’’ when it came to lobbying members of Congress. “He could pick up the phone and call anybody,’’ Flynn said.

“I remember when the new Boston City Hospital didn’t have a lot of money at the time, so Bob came to my assistance, and he was picking up the phone and calling senators all over the country to get their support,’’ Flynn said.

Mr. Coard, who lived in West Roxbury, also helped lobby Congress to get the billions needed to build the Ted Williams Tunnel, according to Flynn.

In July, when Mr. Coard first announced his plans to retire, Juliette Mayers, chairwoman of the ABCD board of directors, told the Globe, “We have nothing but accolades, and we’ve just been extremely pleased with his performance and the impact the ABCD has had all over.’’

Born in British-controlled Grenada, Robert Coard was the son of a civil servant. He immigrated to Texas and attended Dillard University in New Orleans and later earned a master’s degree in sociology from Boston University.

He was working on his doctorate in city and regional planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was offered a job in 1964 as a planner at ABCD and threw himself into the war on poverty.

“It is unconscionable!’’ he often said in speeches decrying the lack of funding for fuel assistance or food.

In 1971, he oversaw the creation of Greater Boston Legal Services under a legal assistance program at ABCD.

In 1973, Mr. Coard led his office, along with three other community action agencies, in filing a class-action lawsuit against President Nixon that stopped the White House from abolishing the Office of Economic Opportunity. The move saved funding for community action programs nationwide.

His other accomplishments include the opening of one of the first community health centers in the nation at Columbia Point, followed by more health centers in Boston.

His wife, Donna, said her husband was proudest of his work in fostering educational opportunities, specifically his role in helping launch the accredited two-year Urban College in Boston, where he was founding president. He also helped open two alternative high schools to reduce the number of high school dropouts and help teens coping with addictions.

“He had endless energy and passion,’’ his wife said.

She met her husband through her work in human services and was drawn to Mr. Coard’s “passion about his work, his wonderful warmth with people, and his sense of humor,’’ she said.

They were married for 32 years.

“He really had a wonderful understanding of the city and an appreciation of all the different cultures in the city,’’ she said. “I used to look at ABCD and its board, even in the early days, and I didn’t see any other institution in Boston where all races and people from all neighborhoods came together around a board of directors to do these wonderful programs. He understood that so well.’’

Drew said Mr. Coard enjoyed the challenge of keeping ABCD alive when political foes sought to weaken the agency. “He thrived on it,’’ Drew said.

Boston political strategist Joyce Ferriabough-Bolling said Mr. Coard was an early mentor with a keen grasp of politics.

“He was as at ease with Republicans as he was with Democrats, as long as he got the services for people who were marginalized,’’ she said. “He was not a show-offy kind of guy. He was a background player, but you did not want him for an adversary. He had the best political mind.’’

Mr. Coard leaves a legacy of better living for hundreds of thousands, she said. “There’s so many stories of lives that Bob has touched at every level. What he’s put in place will never go away,’’ she said.

Juan Cofield, president of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP, said Mr. Coard’s work “made such a difference in people’s lives.’’

“He was a marvelous advocate for the neediest and the underserved in our society,’’ Cofield said.

Beyond his work, Mr. Coard loved the city and its cultural opportunities, his family said. He was a regular at Boston Ballet performances and spent his summers tending his garden at a home in Harwich.

Yesterday, the Boston City Council closed its meeting in memory of Coard, whom Councilor at Large Stephen J. Murphy called “an angel of mercy to people without in the city. Bob Coard did so much for so many in this city with so little.’’

Added Councilor at Large John R. Connolly, “Bob Coard was one of those people who was the backbone of this city.’’

Councilor Charles C. Yancey gave credit to his diplomacy, describing Mr. Coard as “the best politician the city ever had.’’

In addition to his wife, Mr. Coard leaves three sons, David of New York City, Ronald of Norwood, and Mackie of Jamaica Plain; and one daughter, Janet, of South Boston.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Newbury Street in Boston. Burial will be in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

Stephanie Ebbert of the Globe staff contributed to this report.